Bone, Christopher
Tierney, Lauren
2015-08-18T23:04:05Z
2015-08-18T23:04:05Z
2015-08-18
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19266
In recent years, human decision-making has led to significant landscape impacts in the western United States. Specifically, migratory wildlife populations have increasingly been impacted by rural urban development and energy resource development. This research presents the application of agent-based modeling to explore how such impacts influence the characteristics of migratory animal movement, focusing on mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in Western Wyoming. This study utilizes complex adaptive systems and agent-based modeling frameworks to increase understanding of migratory patterns in a changing landscape and explores thresholds of interference to migration patterns due to increased habitat degradation and fragmentation. The agent-based model utilizes GPS-collar data to examine how individual processes lead to population-level patterns of movement and adaptation. The assessment incorporates elements from both human and natural systems to explore potential future scenarios for human development in the natural landscape and incorporates adaptive behaviors, as well as animal-movement ecology, in changing landscapes.
en_US
University of Oregon
All Rights Reserved.
agent-based modeling
animal movement
anthropogenic disturbances
complex adaptive systems
landscape dynamics
wildlife migration
An Agent-Based Model of Wildlife Migratory Patterns in Human-Disturbed Landscapes
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
M.S.
masters
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

Bartein, Patrick
Young, Alanna
2015-01-14T15:55:55Z
2015-01-14
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18702
The annual cycles of human- and lightning-caused fires create distinct patterns in time and space. Evaluating these patterns reveals intimate relationships between climate, culture, and ecoregions. I used unique graphical visualization techniques to examine a dataset of 516,691 records of human- and lightning-caused fire-start data from the western United States for the 20-year period 1992-2011. Human-caused fires were ignited throughout the year and near human populations, while lightning-caused fires were confined almost exclusively to the summer and were concentrated in less-populated areas. I utilize graphs and maps to demonstrate the benefit of a longer time frame in strengthening the findings and describing the underlying interactions among climate, society, and biogeography.
en_US
University of Oregon
All Rights Reserved.
climate
data visualization
western United States
wildfire
Analysis of Spatiotemporal Variations in Human- and Lightning-caused Wildfires from the Western United States (1992-2011)
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
2016-01-14
M.S.
masters
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

Bartlein, Patrick
Izumi, Kenji
2014-10-17T16:13:39Z
2014-10-17T16:13:39Z
2014-10-17
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18510
Paleo data-model comparison is the process of comparing output from model simulations of past periods with paleoenvironmental data. It enables us to understand both the paleoclimate mechanism and responses of the earth environment to the climate and to evaluate how models work. This dissertation has two parts that each involve the development and application of approaches for data-model comparisons. In part 1, which is focused on the understanding of both past and future climatic changes/variations, I compare paleoclimate and historical simulations with future climate projections exploiting the fact that climate-model configurations are exactly the same in the paleo and future simulations in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5. In practice, I investigated large-scale temperature responses (land-ocean contrast, high-latitude amplification, and change in temperature seasonality) in paleo and future simulations, found broadly consistent relationships across the climate states, and validated the responses using modern observations and paleoclimate reconstructions. Furthermore, I examined the possibility that a small set of common mechanisms controls the large-scale temperature responses using a simple energy-balance model to decompose the temperature changes shown in warm and cold climate simulations and found that the clear-sky longwave downward radiation is a key control of the robust responses.
In part 2, I applied the equilibrium terrestrial biosphere models, BIOME4 and BIOME5 (developed from BIOME4 herein), for reconstructing paleoclimate. I applied inverse modeling through the iterative forward-modeling (IMIFM) approach that uses the North American vegetation data to infer the mid-Holocene (MH, 6000 years ago) and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21,000 years ago) climates that control vegetation distributions. The IMIFM approach has the potential to provide more accurate quantitative climate estimates from pollen records than statistical approaches. Reconstructed North American MH and LGM climate anomaly patterns are coherent and consistent between variables and between BIOME4 and BIOME5, and these patterns are also consistent with previous data synthesis.
This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished coauthored material.
en_US
University of Oregon
All Rights Reserved.
paleoclimate diagnostics
paleo data-model comparison
Application of Paleoenvironmental Data for Testing Climate Models and Understanding Past and Future Climate Variations
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Ph.D.
doctoral
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

Fonstad, Mark
Dietrich, James
2015-01-14T15:55:50Z
2015-01-14T15:55:50Z
2015-01-14
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18701
Since 2011, Structure-from-Motion Multi-View Stereo Photogrammetry (SfM or SfM-MVS) has gone from an overlooked computer vision technique to an emerging methodology for collecting low-cost, high spatial resolution three-dimensional data for topographic or surface modeling in many academic fields. This dissertation examines the applications of SfM to the field of fluvial geomorphology. My research objectives for this dissertation were to determine the error and uncertainty that are inherent in SfM datasets, the use of SfM to map and monitor geomorphic change in a small river restoration project, and the use of SfM to map and extract data to examine multi-scale geomorphic patterns for 32 kilometers of the Middle Fork John Day River. SfM provides extremely consistent results, although there are systematic errors that result from certain survey patterns that need to be accounted for in future applications. Monitoring change on small restoration stream channels with SfM gave a more complete spatial perspective than traditional cross sections on small-scale geomorphic change. Helicopter-based SfM was an excellent platform for low-cost, large scale fluvial remote sensing, and the data extracted from the imagery provided multi-scalar perspectives of downstream patterns of channel morphology. This dissertation makes many recommendations for better and more efficient SfM surveys at all of the spatial scales surveyed. By implementing the improvements laid out here and by other authors, SfM will be a powerful tool that will make 3D data collection more accessible to the wider geomorphic community.
en_US
University of Oregon
All Rights Reserved.
fluvial geomorphology
fluvial remote sensing
multi-view photogrammetry
river restoration monitoring
Structure-from-Motion
Applications of Structure-from-Motion Photogrammetry to Fluvial Geomorphology
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Ph.D.
doctoral
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

Cohen, Shaul
Duffy, Tyler
2013-10-10T23:20:07Z
2014-12-29T21:12:32Z
2013-10-10
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13435
This thesis explores questions of politics and public space through an examination of the experiences of people involved in Occupy protest camps and local officials who were tasked with managing the protests in Eugene, OR and Madison, WI. Using assemblage as an organizing theoretical framework, this work identifies the actors involved in the production of Occupy protest camps and traces the trajectories of two Occupy protests from their beginnings to eviction day. It highlights the role of space in the protests, the ways in which protesters negotiated with local authorities for long-term use of public spaces previously prohibited by law, and some of the factors that contributed to the eviction of the protest camps. Finally, it seeks to reframe the debate on public space and conceptualizes public space as an assemblage that is continually made, unmade, and remade through the interactions of diverse, heterogeneous actors.
en_US
University of Oregon
All Rights Reserved.
activism
assemblage
occupy wall street
protest
public space
urban geography
Assembling the Protest Camp: Politics, Public Space, and Occupy Protests
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
M.A.
masters
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

Dixon, Megan Lori, 1969-
2009-05-18T21:50:06Z
2009-05-18T21:50:06Z
2008-12
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/9172
xvi, 330 p. : ill. (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
This dissertation focuses on an urban development project outside St. Petersburg, Russia, called the Baltic Pearl. Financed by a consortium of firms based in Shanghai, China, the Baltic Pearl signals several changes in contemporary Russia. At the scale of the region and the nation-state, the project reflects growing political cooperation between the Russian and Chinese governments; it also parallels an increase in economic partnership, including use of Chinese labor. However, social processes at the scale of the city may militate against the success of this project. City residents fearful of rumored Chinese migration feel alarm over the Baltic Pearl because they associate it with narratives of Chinatowns inhabited by labor migrants; other residents already resentful of being left behind in the economic transformation associate the project with the city administration's neglect of their needs. Thus, closer examination of the Baltic Pearl offers the opportunity to gauge commonalities in the causes behind xenophobia and claims of dispossession.
Using a theoretical approach based on both humanist and critical geography, I develop an original reading of Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space to which I give the term socio-spatial paradigm. This concept allows me to conduct an analysis of spatialities in statements of the vision and purpose of the Baltic Pearl made by various individuals and groups. I consider the negotiation over the project's form between Chinese and Russian officials, planners, and architects; local protest and support for the quarter as articulated in newspaper articles, blogs, a survey, and interviews; and individual narratives of spatial form in the city as recounted in a survey and interviews. The aim of the different analyses is to evaluate the capacity of St. Petersburg to adapt to global pressures related to economic restructuring and migration streams, and to become a truly "world city" in terms of cultural multiplicity as well as financial capacity.
The conclusion discusses the commensurability of information gained at different scales, from interview narratives to government statements. The study asserts the need to develop better models for incorporating information gained at finer scales into our evaluation of state-to-state relations.
Advisers: Dr. Alexander B. Murphy; Dr. Susan W. Hardwick
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Geography, Ph. D., 2008;
Russia
China
Saint Petersburg (Russia)
Urban development
Spatial analysis
Xenophobia
Baltic Pearl
Chinese quarter
Geography
Russian history
Urban planning
The Baltic Pearl in the window to Europe: St. Petersburg's Chinese quarter
Thesis

Lawrence, Megan McNally, 1977-
2011-09-23T21:16:39Z
2011-09-23T21:16:39Z
2011-06
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/11564
xiii, 103 p. : ill. (some col.)
This research investigates the relationship between map use tasks, spatial abilities and training-based effects in persons who are blind or visually impaired. A mixed-method approach using theories and methods in behavioral geography, tactile cartography and functional magnetic resonance imaging have produced finds that identify both behaviorally-based as well as biologically-based impacts resulting from systematic tactile map use and spatial thinking training. The neurological results indicate that prior to training a dominant egocentric/route strategy is used to answer all experimental map tasks, while after training an allocentric/survey strategy is used. The current study demonstrates that the adoption of an allocentric perspective is coupled with improved behavioral performance. The findings provide supporting evidence that people who are blind are capable of learning and applying sophisticated spatial strategies. The systematic progression from egocentric/route processing to allocentric/survey processing in the participant population follows traditional developmental models of spatial knowledge.
Committee in charge: Amy Lobben, Chairperson;
Andrew Marcus, Member;
Patrick Bartlein, Member;
Michal Young, Outside Member
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Geography, Ph. D., 2011;
Spatial strategies
Map reading
Behavioral geography
Blind
Cognitive science
Tactile maps
Training
Geography
Behavioral and neurological studies in tactile map reading and training by persons who are blind or visually impaired
Thesis

Fischetti, Diana Michelle, 1976-
2008-12-08T23:08:39Z
2008-12-08T23:08:39Z
2008-09
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/8014
xv, 224 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
Because of the personal, social, economic, and environmental impacts of material
consumption, resistance is afoot. The creation of new places is a tool used by those
resisting the negative aspects of consumer culture. One example is the ecovillage: an
intentional community whose members strive to live in a socially and environmentally
sustainable manner, to practice voluntary simplicity, and to cultivate meaning, life
satisfaction, and fulfillment. This research involves a case study of EcoVillage at Ithaca,
located in New York, the goal of which is to create a model of sustainable living that is
appealing to mainstream America, reduce the ecological footprint of inhabitants and
increase meaningful relationships within the community. Through its educational mission
and accompanying outreach, EcoVillage at Ithaca models an alternative to middle-class,
mainstream American culture. EcoVillage at Ithaca's impact beyond the lives of the individual residents demonstrates its effectiveness as a space of resistance to consumer
society.
Advisers: Shaul Cohen, Peter Walker, Nancy Cheng
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Geography, M.A., 2008;
Building Resistance from Home: EcoVillage at Ithaca as a Model of Sustainable Living
Thesis

Landers, Matthew Worth, 1984-
2010-06-18T23:47:33Z
2010-06-18T23:47:33Z
2010-03
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/10474
xi, 114 p. : ill., maps (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
Since 1975, the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia has been renegotiating
its political and cultural place within Spain. The designation and promotion of places
within Catalonia as World Heritage Sites-a matter over which regional authorities have
competency-provides insights into the national and territorial ideas that have emerged
in recent decades. This study of the selection and portrayal of World Heritage sites by
Turisme de Cata1unya shows that the sites reflect a view of the region as 1) home to a
distinct cultural group, 2) a place with an ancient past, and 3) a place with a history of
territorial autonomy. These characteristics suggest that even though many Catalan
regionalists seek a novel territorial status that is neither independent of nor subservient to
the Spanish state, the dominant territorial norms of the modem state system continue to
be at the heart of the Catalan nation-building project.
Committee in Charge:
Dr. Alexander B. Murphy, Chair;
Dr. Xiaobo Su
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Geography, M.A., 2010;
World Heritage areas -- Spain -- Catalonia
Catalonia (Spain)
Catalonia Is a Country: World Heritage and Regional Nationalism
World Heritage and Regional Nationalism
Thesis

Ginsburg, Alexander David
2012-04-19T00:34:03Z
2012-04-19T00:34:03Z
2011-12
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12166
xiv, 143 p.
The amplified effects of climate change in the Arctic are well known and, according to many commentators, endanger Inuit cultural integrity. However, the specific connections between climate change and cultural change are understudied. This thesis explores the relationship between climatic shifts and culture in the Inuit community of Salluit, Quebec, Canada. Although residents of Salluit are acutely aware of climate change in their region and have developed causal explanations for the phenomenon, most Salluit residents do not characterize climate change as a threat to Inuit culture. Instead, they highlight the damaging impacts of globalization and internal colonialism as a more serious problem. This counter-narrative suggests that focusing narrowly on climate change can obscure the broader and more immediate challenges facing Inuit communities. Such a realization demonstrates the need for researchers to locate climate change within a matrix of non-climatic challenges in order to mitigate threats to indigenous cultures.
Committee in charge: Susan W. Hardwick, Chairperson;
Alexander B. Murphy, Chairperson;
Michael Hibbard, Member
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Geography, M.A., 2011;
rights_reserved
Geography
Canadian studies
Climate change
Social sciences
Earth sciences
Canada
Culture change
Inuit
Nunavik
Salluit (Quebec)
Climatic changes -- Quebec (Province) -- Salluit
Climate Change and Culture Change in Salluit, Quebec, Canada
Thesis

Lobben, Amy
Perdue, Nicholas
2016-11-21T16:54:52Z
2016-11-21
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/20675
Walking is one of the most commonplace forms of human expressions, yet the forms, motivations, and practices of walking vary greatly and are often at odds with dominant discourses in urban and transportation planning. As interest in pedestrian-oriented studies continues to grow, there is danger that dominant discourses will continue to reinforce the framing of pedestrians and the practices of walking as slower moving versions of the private automobile and ignore deeply embedded emotional, personal, and cognitive aspects. As such, understandings of pedestrian transportation and human agency during walking must be explored in increasingly human-centered terms in order to understand how changes to the material environment actually impact people and daily practices. The purpose of this dissertation is to give considerably more attention to the human elements of walking by creating a set of new theoretical and practical frameworks for deeper representations of the pedestrian in the urban space and within a larger transportation system. The three articles presented in this dissertation outline an alternative, human-centered representation of the pedestrian, providing theoretical, methodological, and practical solutions to conceptualize how soft variables such as emotion, motivation, and especially cognition influence the practices of walking.
en_US
University of Oregon
All Rights Reserved.
Cognition
Modeling
Pedestrian
Rationality
Redevelopment
Validation
Cognitive Agents and Pedestrian-Oriented Redveopment
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
10000-01-01
Ph.D.
doctoral
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

Vogel, Eve, 1964-
2008-05-16T18:40:06Z
2008-05-16T18:40:06Z
2007-12
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/6280
xiv, 296 p. : ill. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call numbers: KNIGHT F853 .V64 2007
This dissertation argues that Columbia River management and politics have been shaped ever since the New Deal by a conception of the Columbia River as the defining feature of the Pacific Northwest region. The study examines how that conception was developed, how it became institutionalized within and by a government agency, the Bonneville Power Administration, and what its impacts have been. Drawing on a mix of archival materials, published and unpublished secondary accounts, interviews, and the author's experience working on Columbia River policy, the dissertation shows that the definition of a Columbia River-centered Pacific Northwest was laid out in 1935 by the four-state Pacific Northwest Regional Planning Commission, influenced in part by a "regionalist" ideal of shared social and environmental well-being. It was institutionalized but narrowed into the federal BPA in 1937. Soon, a three-and-a-half-state Pacific Northwest consisting of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana was being knit together by shared transmission lines and uniformly inexpensive power rates, and by a federal power agency that positioned itself as a regional Chamber of Commerce.
Since the Second World War, the Columbia River-centered Pacific Northwest has shaped its collective economic fortunes around exclusive regional access to BPA-provided Columbia River hydropower. But geographically distributed wealth did not end political conflict; private power companies, state governors, Native American tribes, and fish and wildlife agencies have had to be accommodated with distributions of BPA power and money. BPA-centered Columbia River management has through political conflict gradually expanded to serve wider interests, moving closer to the New Deal regionalist ideal.
Yet in controversial decisions since 2000, Columbia River managers have chosen to risk wild salmon rather than breach federal Columbia River hydropower dams or allow Pacific Northwest power costs to escalate. They have done this because they have prioritized the most fundamental, and the most regional, Columbia River benefit of all: broadly shared inexpensive power. Understanding the opportunities and constraints of BPA-centered regional Columbia River management is essential in order to meet upcoming Columbia River policy challenges.
Adviser: Alexander B. Murphy
13258322 bytes
60016 bytes
application/pdf
application/pdf
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Geography, Ph. D., 2007
Hydropower
Montana
Environment and development
Columbia River
Place
Northwest, Pacific
Washington (State)
Environmental history
Political economy
Regional planning
Idaho
Pacific Northwest
Oregon
The Columbia River's region: Politics, place and environment in the Pacific Northwest, 1933--present
Thesis

Lobben, Amy
Gordon, Josef
2013-10-10T23:19:18Z
2013-10-10T23:19:18Z
2013-10-10
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13424
The goal of this thesis is to assess and characterize the representativeness of sampled data that is voluntarily submitted through social media. The case study vehicle used is Twitter data associated with the 2012 Presidential election, which were in turn compared to similarly collected 2008 Presidential election Twitter data in order to ascertain the representative statewide changes in the pro-Democrat bias of sentiment-derived Twitter data mentioning either of the Republican or Democrat Presidential candidates.
The results of the comparative analysis show that the MAE lessened by nearly half - from 13.1% in 2008 to 7.23% in 2012 - which would initially suggest a less biased sample. However, the increase in the strength of the positive correlation between tweets per county and population density actually suggests a much more geographically biased sample.
en_US
University of Oregon
All Rights Reserved.
Big Data
Election
GIS
Social Media
Twitter
Comparative Geospatial Analysis of Twitter Sentiment Data during the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Presidential Elections
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
M.S.
masters
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

Jablonski, Jon R.
2009-10-21T01:14:57Z
2009-10-21T01:14:57Z
2009-06
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/9873
xii, 158 p. : ill., maps. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
The Internet affects many aspects of daily life and economic activity in globalized
economies. The network city thesis posits that the Internet enables disbursed methods of
production and new forms of economic activity. Existing economic geography literature
concentrates on revenue generating firms. The concept of Cultural Heritage
Cyberinfrastructure (CHCi) is developed in order to account for economic activities of
nongoverning and nonrevenue generating firms, and is tested against the online activities
of libraries. China, with its administratively homogeneous provincial library system and
rapidly changing economy, is examined. The central government and provincial libraries
are cooperatively building the National Digital Culture Network of China to provide
information services to urban migrants and subsidize rural development efforts through
CHCi. These projects are found to be more active in less-economically transitioned
western provinces. CHCi is found to be a useful construct for studying non-governing,
non-market segments of an economy.
Committee in Charge:
Dr. Alexander B. Murphy, Chair;
Dr. Xiaobo Su
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Geography, M.A., 2009;
Cyberinfrastructure -- China
Provincial libraries
State libraries -- China
Cultural Heritage Cyberinfrastructure
Cultural Heritage Cyberinfrastructure: A Geographic Case Study of China
Geographic Case Study of China
Thesis

Nelson, Lise
Naylor, Lindsay
2014-10-17T16:13:12Z
2014-10-17
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18505
Recognition of the world food crisis has increased popular and scholarly work on alternatives to corporatized agriculture. Among many alternatives, fair trade and food sovereignty are two movements that have received a substantial amount of attention. Scholarly work on these topics, however, has focused on larger-scale issues of policy, access and benefits accrued to producers and consumers within such alternative food systems. Producer-focused studies of fair trade--a broader certification system designed to ameliorate inequalities in the marketplace--have examined access to markets, producer benefits and fairness. Analyses of struggles for food sovereignty in the developing world--which are directed at producer control over agricultural systems--are focused on creating radical alternatives to neoliberal food systems. However, very little is known about the everyday agricultural and food production practices which farmers deploy as part of their involvement with these broader politics. Attempts to create secure livelihoods and food resources do not exist in a vacuum; they take place alongside other strategies for survival. This is a situation that is well illustrated by indigenous farmers living in self-declared autonomous communities in Chenalhó, Chiapas, Mexico, where, cultivating subsistence crops and cash crops represents an effort to advance a political agenda for indigenous autonomy and create secure sources of food and income.
Based on research and fieldwork from 2010-2013, in this dissertation I examine how farmers who are linked up with broader networks (such as fair trade certification) understand and practice autonomy. Drawing on a feminist geopolitical approach, this research presents a `scaled-down' analysis of autonomy, fair trade certification and practices of food sovereignty which is focused on the experience of farmers in self-declared autonomous communities. This approach provides critical insight into the daily negotiations of farmers as they interact with a range of networks.
en_US
University of Oregon
All Rights Reserved.
autonomy
decolonial
fair trade
feminist geopolitics
food sovereignty
resistance
Decolonial Autonomies: Fair Trade, Subsistence and the Everyday Practice of Food Sovereignty in the Highlands of Chiapas
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
2015-10-17
Ph.D.
doctoral
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

Murphy, Alexander
Watkins, Derek
Watkins, Derek
2012-10-26T04:05:53Z
2012-10-26T04:05:53Z
2012
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12442
Human social interactions imbue the world with meaning, transforming abstract spaces into lived places. Given the digital conduits of much modern social interaction, online narratives increasingly affect material places. Yet the emerging glut of online information demands new methods of investigating place narratives at multiple scales. Drawing on novel geographic visualizations of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of photographs of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands posted on the website Flickr, this study shows that online portrayals are 1) highly uneven in terms of distribution, visibility, and content, 2) fundamentally influenced by "real-world" geographies, 3) often culturally reductive, and 4) made to appear unduly exhaustive by the naturalizing visual slant of the internet as a medium of communication. These processes stand to influence how places are constructed in the information age, especially given the presence of "digital divides" that work against internet access for much of the world's population.
en_US
University of Oregon
All Rights Reserved.
borderlands
critical cartography
geoweb
neogeography
place
volunteered geographic information
Digital Facets of Place: Flickr's Mappings of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation

Blanton, Paul, 1968-
2011-05-23T22:55:58Z
2011-05-23T22:55:58Z
2010-09
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/11186
xvi, 150 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
Floodplain roads and railroads are common features in river landscapes, but their distribution and impacts have not been explicitly studied. This dissertation discusses the impacts of floodplain roads and railroads on channel and floodplain processes in river landscapes at the continental, regional, and local scales.
At the continental scale, I documented the spatial patterns of roads and railroads in the floodplains of the continental United States and the regional variability of their potential impacts. Based on these results, I developed a conceptual model based on topography and the interaction of transportation and stream networks that suggests that the area of lateral disconnection caused by transportation infrastructure should be most extensive in mid-sized alluvial valleys in relatively rugged settings, such as those located in the western United States.
I used pre-existing digital geologic, hydrologic, and transportation data with Geographic Information Systems software to map floodplain areas and lateral disconnection along the floodplains of two river systems in Washington State. I developed methods to quickly and inexpensively delineate potential or historic floodplain surfaces, to analyze lateral floodplain disconnection caused by different types of structure, and to rank floodplain reaches in terms of salmon habitat potential. Although all floodplains exhibited disconnection, the floodplain maps and habitat rankings helped identify opportunities for habitat preservation and restoration.
At the local scale, I mapped and measured the impacts of lateral disconnection, showing that channel and riparian habitat was degraded in locations with floodplain transportation infrastructure confining the channel compared with similar nearby sites lacking such confinement. Railroad grades and road beds function as confining structures in the riparian zone, disrupting flood pulses and the exchange of water, sediment, and biota between channels and their floodplains and within the floodplain. Over longer time periods, these structures can also impede the natural meandering and migration of channels across their floodplains, disrupting the erosional and depositional processes that drive the high habitat and biological diversity characteristic of floodplains. My results show that human-caused disconnections need to be further incorporated into river science and management.
This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material.
Committee in charge: W. Andrew Marcus, Chairperson, Geography;
Daniel Gavin, Member, Geography;
Patricia McDowell, Member, Geography;
Joshua Roering, Outside Member, Geological Sciences
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Geography, Ph. D., 2010;
Geomorphology
Landscape ecology
River landscapes
Human impacts
Roads -- Design and construction -- Environmental aspects
Railroads -- Design and construction -- Environmental aspects
Geography
Transportation planning
Floodplain management
The distribution and impact of roads and railroads on the river landscapes of the coterminous United States
Thesis